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Live, Work, Play
A Best Small Town for Business
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Ponca City Development Authority WEEKLY UPDATE
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October 10, 2014
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WELCOME TO FALL...it would appear that this last week marked summer's last gasp and that today is more fall like. Either way, the week had PCDA in the sunshine and under several roofs, depending upon the situation. We were, for example, in Log10's building a lot working through issues related to the completion of their improvements. They are selling a lot of "stuff" and they are making it out at Pioneer Tech but there is only so much space there. We also worked the phones in advance of a trip to Houston to make nice with several prospects. There were three visits with existing companies, a presentation to the Charity Ambucs, a meeting of the PCDA Board of Trustees, (may their autumn leaves fall directly into their trash bags) and a Town Hall by Congressman Frank Lucas. We also attended, actually we ran a meeting of the Oklahoma Renewable Energy Council on Wednesday and descended upon the Oklahoma Economic Development Summit yesterday and today.
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UPCOMING......
Sat, Oct 11: Annual Tourism Conference at the Marland Mansion for Red Carpet Country. Call 765-4400 for info.
Fri, Oct 24: Marland Childrens Home Fall Festival www.marland childrenshome.com
Wed, Oct 29: WBT Unmanned Aerial Systems conference in Stillwater. Registration
Thursday, October 30: Goblins on Grand, 5:30 to 7:30 pm. Bring the family.
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SAW YOU IN SEPTEMBER...at least we did if you were one of the 116 visits we had with existing Ponca City companies. This is part of what is referred to as Business Retention and Expansion or BRE. Most economic development organizations, including PCDA, spend most of our time on BRE since existing companies account for approximately 80% of all new jobs in the United States. The public attention and focus is typically on business recruitment, 'cause it's more fun and gives a clear winners and loser narrative making it seem almost sporting. Those recruitment jobs, of which Ponca City gets more than our share (please don't tell "them"...see story below) account for about 10% of new jobs with business start-ups adding the remaining 10%. Last month, PCDA wasn't AWOL from the business recruitment "game" talking to 20 new companies but if you're good at math, you know that 116 is a lot more than 20. PCDA is not in this alone, we must note, so we got together with like-minded partners (a la Pioneer Tech, OESC, etc.) 22 times in September. Also on the calendar were 18 meetings with those fun loving, crazy types in the government, and 11 conversations with the site consultants who tell business recruitment projects where they should go, (pause). After all was said and done, PCDA closed out September with 14 projects open and a potential job count of 808 new jobs, most of them from existing companies.
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 WE DIDN'T DO IT AND THEY CAN'T MAKE US...So we just told you about how PCDA spends most of our time on existing companies. This often surprises people who seem to think it's all about "the announcement." While we may spend most of our time on BRE, the talking heads who speak nothing but truth on the internet remain focused on the 10% that is business recruitment. Case in point: PCDA and many other economic development organizations were informed this week about an apparently fake business recruitment "lead." It seems that there is a small group of researchers, posing as a company seeking a location. While PCDA was not on their invite list, we were advised that the "company" asked communities what they would offer in terms of grants or loans to bring a described project to their community. Perhaps we didn't get the lead because PCDA does neither. We cannot legally give grants to businesses for a lot of reasons. We do not make loans to businesses because we're not a bank and have several fine banks in the community with whom we have no business competing. Incentives from PCDA are a quid quo pro. They are tied to jobs and almost always hard assets, (i.e. infrastructure, buildings that can't be moved, land, etc.) not operating capital (i.e. grants). IF our source is correct, look for a story in about a year based upon research that may generalize that communities (the implication being "all") throw free money at companies and imply that this is how incentives are used. PCDA wishes the researchers success and a long career in academia because they'll never make it in economic development.
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PROPS, YO...we figured if we just said "congratulations" you might think we were not keeping it real. However you want to represent, PCDA is psyched (very pleased) at the new health wing that opened at Pioneer Tech. A community dedication and tour was held on October 2nd to show off the new doc-n-the-box school (health wing facility). The new wing, which is phat, yo (attractive) will help train people in health care careers and Pioneer Tech has really laced up (stepped up their game). This should be epic (great) in the years to come and while it cost PTC a lot of guap (money) it is unquestionably rad (exceptional). Classes are already underway in the facility and many of the students were on hand at the open house telling visitors how the new digs (the new classrooms) would be legendary (nice). The moral of the story is that Pioneer Tech has relevant, outstanding programs and that PCDA, like Pioneer Tech, is down with the young people and not vanilla (conventional). See the Kodak below.
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 | Admiring the brand, spanking new classrooms in the just finished
Health Wing at Pioneer Technology Center.
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Though we here at PoncaWorks are usually paying attention to employer needs as far as education goes, this week PoncaWorks Manager Sarah Linn is heading off for some education in the economic development world. Sarah will be attending a week of "this is economic development" which we are sure will involve her specialty, workforce recruitment. She will also get the chance to talk to other economic development organization (that's EDOs for those in the know) about what is working (and not working) in their areas of the U.S. Sarah's little helpers are off to Coffeeville, Kansas to see who from Amazon's Warehouse operation would like to checkout/relocate/live in Ponca City. Wish all of us luck. And remember, you all out there are our best recruiters. Share your love of Ponca with others. Go Ponca!
To hear about job opportunities in Ponca City, get on our PoncaWorks email blast list, or refer a friend looking for work, contact Sarah at 580-765-7070 or slinn@goponca.com.
Ponca has jobs! We just need the right people to fill them.
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Ponca City Development Authority
Office Phone: 580-765-7070
Fax: 580-765-0969
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